Staff Reporter
Islamabad: Senior Christian journalist Shamim Mehmood has said that he was assaulted for hours after being kidnapped by unknown men in the capital city of Islamabad.
The 47-year-old journalist, who now works as a freelance journalist, has filed an application at Aabpara Police Station in Islamabad. In his application, he has narrated his five-hour ordeal and called for law enforcement agencies to prosecute those involved in his kidnapping and assaulting.
Mr Mahmood also raised his concerns of life threat in the aftermath of the event. “I have no personal enmity with anyone and I am not sure who or which group got offended by my professional work as a journalist,” Mehmood told Daily Parliament Times from Islamabad on Sunday. “All I want is those who subjected me to this inhuman treatment should be held accountable for their actions,” he added.
The application stated three masked men surrounded him and forcefully put him in a car when he was returning from an assignment. “They covered my face with a black cloth and took me in an interrogation room after around 15 minutes’ drive,” he stated. “They took my mobile phone and aggressively interrogated and physically assaulted me before asking different obnoxious questions for around four hours,” the applicant added.
“They beat me hard with their hands, foot and sticks and after almost four hours of this repeated exercise, they released me on the Islamabad Express Highway,” he said.
Shamim had previously worked with Daily Khabrian, Online News Agency, Daily Jinnah Urdu daily, Daily Morning Mail, Pakistan Today and some other National dailies.
This is not for the first time a journalist has been abducted and tortured in Islamabad. In January last year, journalist Matiullah, who is known for critical reporting on the country’s powerful state institutions, was abducted in broad daylight in Islamabad.
His abduction was caught on camera and went viral on social media, resulting in his release 12 hours later. No arrest has been made as yet in Jan’s abduction case.